Playboy has published profiles of nine women bloggers (loosely defined) – Xeni Jardin, Violet Blue, Julie Alexandria, Veronica Belmont, Amanda Congdon, Brigitte Dale, Sarah Lacy, Sarah Austin and Natali Del Conte – and asked readers to vote on which one is “sexiest.” The winner will be asked to pose for Playboy.
Sarah Lacy, host of Yahoo’s TechTicker, is described respectfully as a “curvy brunette.” Lacy says that Playboy told her about the poll before it was published but said nothing about their plans to ask the winner to pose nude for the magazine. Lacy says if she wins she won’t accept the offer to go nude.
Natali Del Conte, the host of CNET’s Loaded (and former TechCrunch writer), currently leads voting with 24% of total votes, says she was notified of the poll and gave permission to use her picture. She says if she wins she will “absolutely not pose nude for Playboy,” however. Playboy describes Natali as having a “sunshiney demeanor and girl-next-door good looks.”
I’d like to say contests like these are few and far between, but Wired isn’t much better. In 2007 they asked readers to vote for the sexiest geek of 2007 (not linking to it because the Wired article hotlinked to pictures, one of which has been changed to a goatse).